The Legend Of Spyro: Realignment
by Arimuss
Summary: The world has been saved, it's earth reknitted together by the power of the young purple dragon, yet all is not well. Huge veins of magical crystal tear through the landscape like sickening jagged rivers that birth forth new enemies and challenges to be faced by the black and purple duo as they seek to repair their new world.
1. Prologue: A New World

The world was a cacophony of terrible rumbles and deafening cracks that filled the air as titanic chunks of earth, terrifying in their scope, soared into the air, each followed by a searing gout of incandescently hot magma and an accompanying plume of choking black ash that scraped the nostrils and stung the eyes. Amidst the chaotic assault on his senses, a battle-weary purple drake levitated above a tiny, unfractured, plinth of earth, his great wings outspread and radiating with brilliant violet hued energy that cascaded out of his form in great thrumming waves.

As the intensity of his power grew and the rancorous litany of breaking earth marched onwards around him, assaulting all of his senses with their monstrous affects, it would be simple to miss the frame of the slender black companion next to him, desperately clinging to one of his dangling legs with one lithe fore-paw. Indeed, he would have were it not for the trio of chipped, worn in claws cracking his armored purple hide and sinking into the strong muscle below, long trails of crimson trickling down his strong legs and sending pain lancing up his spine.

His entire world reduced to three piercing points of knife sharp torture.

Amidst their deafening surroundings all other sound was lost until, moments before the situations crescendo whereupon a dazzling white light radiated outwards from the young drake and a single, breathless admission rang out above the accompanying silence, and it whispered.

"I love you"

After that there was nothing.

The world was darkness and our hero found himself floating in a deep empty void, but it wasn't a fearful experience, quite to the contrary, the soft, quiet dark was a comfort, a respite from the stress and pain of the world, and the longer the purple drake lingered, riding the midnight waves of oblivion, the more he found himself wanting to remain there, his duty fulfilled, his friends safe, to let the world fall away and bother him no more- he was at peace.

It was utterly intoxicating, the gentle tugging at his tired psyche bade him to remain, to delay and stay, there was no doubt that he would were it not for the soft, echoing call that rang out through the dark. It started as a murmur, like a droplet of water disturbing a still pond, then came another and another, each louder than the last, soon the murmur began to shift into words and they simply called.

"Spyro…" Disturbing his rest, before tapering off, back into the black ether that surrounded him. "Spyro" It called once more, and then again and again, long since stirred from his contented rest, the words now more than a mere disturbance, each one raked through his psyche like a knife, dragging him further and further from that deep sleep and, that voice, he knew that voice, not as a name, but on a deep instinctive level and it beckoned him back, out of that deep dark embrace.

As the voice rang true and he began to drift back to the land of the living, one word rang through his mind.

"Cynder" No sooner than he remembered that voice did the welcoming embrace that he had soon come to covet turn against him, now trying to drag him down into its depths, battling against his frantic cloying and struggling, desperate to drown him "Cynder!" He called out, fear and worry tempering his voice as he looked around, desperate to find the source of her call as he struggled against the night.

He clawed and thrashed, tried anything to break free from what felt like tendrils, dragging him down into the black, inky abyss, to no avail, he was drawn back down, pulled below into the murky nothingness as one final, teary cry rang out in the dark "Cynder!..." Oblivion took him and the moment all hope died and even the light in his eyes fell to the crushing black of the pit, his lids finally closed, then his senses set on fire!

Air flooded into his lung in the sort of sharp intake a drowning man would make after washing ashore, and with that so too did color and light wash back into his world as he flung himself forwards from his prone position, eyes wide as he scrambled, struggling to drink in the scope of it all, every sound, every sight as though he were experiencing it for the first time, the young dragon, no doubt, would have bowled himself over were it not for the set of paws that now curled themselves around his neck.

"Spyro!" Chimed an elegant black dragoness, still looking a little worse for wear after the ordeal with the evil dragon, but it didn't dampen her mirth, she yelled his name with the sort of all-encompassing joy that drowned out all else and threw herself at him with equal vigor.

Still coming too, the purple drake draped his own arms around his friend, more out of instinctive reflex than a shared desire to embrace her. It was only then, with his chest to hers that he noticed how warm he felt, how warm she was, and how cold that deep dark void was, the mere thought of slipping into that night once more terrified and shook him to his core.

His paws clenched, his claws digging into her resilient black scales roughly, chipping them as he drew her in close, he shook lightly, his entire form awake, so very painfully awake, such that every sensation, rediscovered as though it were the first time, hurt him as though it were a wound, it was all too much, far too much. He shut his eyes tight, a feeble attempt to block out some of his surroundings as he buried his muzzle into the nape of her neck and softly, quietly, sobbed to himself.

Perhaps enraptured by her own merriment, perhaps unable to distinguish the distinctly wet patches gathering against her shoulder or perhaps she simply misconstrued the tears for ones of joy, whatever the case, the young dragoness did not address them, however when she deigned to pull away she was met with a choked objection.

"No! …" He jerked in her arms, resisting her retreat before softening, becoming mindful of how he must look and his tone "Not yet I mean… just a while longer" A few moments passed and he tried to regain his composure and surreptitiously dried his eyes on his own frame. Eventually the young male slowly unwrapped himself from the dragoness and put on the best smile he could as he reclined a little and finally got a good look at his companion.

Even if it was a fake smile at first, it soon fell through and became real one, filled with warmth at the sight of his, battered, but still beautiful companion and, even if he did have to catch himself as the latter of those thoughts flitted through his head, he was still thrilled to see her. "Cynder…" He sighed happily before taking a cursory glance at their surroundings and eliciting a small, dry chuckle "…I don't suppose our luck is good enough for this to be heaven?"Cynder let out her own dry laugh at the poor attempt at humor, covering her mouth with a paw.

"No, I don't suppose it is" She spoke, more factually than anything else, only pausing from her sentiments to take another look at their surroundings "But…." She smirked, if only to herself as she drank breath of fresh air, and savoured it like the finest wines from the most sun drenched grapes. Eventually though her attention did return to her companion, and she met him with only a smile "...This is a close second".

Now it was Spyros turn look around, his attention had lingered too long on the dragoness and his throughs. Looking around under any other circumstances would have been a singularly inauspicious occasion, surrounding the pair was a vast expanse of lush veridian grass that danced and waved in the gentle breeze that orchestrated their movements, above was a blue sky, tinged cobalt by fading light of the day and scantily traced with the light, vaporous trails of cirrus clouds.

How many times had he laid under a sky like this? How many times had he laid on grass just like this? How many times had he taken it for granted, not thought of all that he strived to save, perhaps it was better that way, for the concern of saving the inhabitants or Warfang, the guardians, Sparx and of saving cynder were burden enough without the existential worry of also rescuing the worlds inherent beauty. With that said though… the fields might as well have been emeralds and the sky a sapphire firmament for they were worth more than the worlds riches combined at that moment.

They had been saved. He glanced down from the sky to his paws,perhaps on instinct as a proud smirk threatened to flitter across his lips,but the victory wasn't all his and before the smirk could grow into a grin he looked up at the dragoness, who looked every bit as worse for wear as he did and was every bit as responsible for this victory as he was, and most of all, they had been saved.

He outstretched a paw, looking to take to his feet for the first time, the young man simply tumbled aimlessly to the floor accompanied by a soft sort of 'oof' as he rolled onto the grass. It looked like riding adrenaline had gotten him up from his prone position, but, for the moment at least walking was beyond his physical limits.

" hmmph...that sucked" Grunted the purple drake, garnering the attention of the dragoness, his voice carried no inflection of pain or anguish though so she felt no alarm as she trotted over and rolled him onto his side so she could look at him "Easy there purple, take it easy… it's not every day you save the world, we can afford a while" She comforted, placing a paw on one of his characteristic yellow horns. The contact wasn't lost on him and he did look up to meet her.

"Purple?... That's new" He challenged with a warm smile, all the more brilliant when contrasted with his scraped up scales and chipped claws. Cynder simply returned the smile and let her paw slip from his horn before stroking along the two-tone frills that ran down the centre line of his head before once more looking out at the lush fields that surrounded them.

"It's a brand new world."


	2. Chapter 1: Reforged

Chapter 1: Reforged

The warm, still day passed like an era, glacially, the hues of its sky merging imperceptibly, one into the other as the once azure firmament began to adopt the soft hues of oranges and pinks which, in their own turn, began to fade into the darker, royal blues and navy's of night. Spyro passed the day on his side, breathing gently, taking in the sweet scent of the meadow air as Cynder sat at his side and rhythmically ran her paw from his neck to his shoulders, ever patient, allowing him all the time he needed.

Tired as he may be, sleep evaded Spyro, every time his eyes shut and he was welcomed by the dark his heart would race like the frantic applause of an audience clapping, brought back once more to that all too familiar feeling of drowning in that shadowy pit, no matter how he tried, he couldn't rest. The only solace was the soft stroking of the dragoness beside him, no longer was he alone in that pit, confused and clinging to life, he knew, in his rational mind, that he was safe… but sleep was, for the moment, out of the question- 'no matter' he thought, fatigue would take him one way or another.

The time did come however when the golden rays of the sun ducked below the horizon and the warm air no longer sufficed as a comfortable setting for the pair, it having since given way to the deceptively chill night- by no means cold, but without cover less than amenable. It was Cynder that broached the subject of moving in a suitably delicate fashion; she stood and stretched much like a cat would, only in the place of the normally uninterrupted curve of a felines back, there were two outstretched wings, their silvered tips glinting softly in the dying light before she resumed her usual pose and deigned to speak.

"Spyro…" She said softly, as though to test whether he was awake or not, he was and he greeted his name by rolling over and looking to her searchingly "Tired or not, I don't think it'll do well for you to rest all night on the cold grass" She paused, her smile, which Spyro noted brought a strange comfort to him to see, punctuated the dark and she chuckled "Or else I'll find you here in the morning all wet with morning dew" it drew a snerk from the purple dragon all the same.

"I suppose you're right" He assented and motioned to stand, Cynder moved to support him but it seemed the few hours respite had afforded him a modicum of his usual might and he rose to his paws without much effort "I'm not too sure about flying right now…" He admitted with a casual flap of his battered wings "but we can walk sure enough can't we. There must be something around here" He scanned around them sure enough there was a forest nearby, not the most desirable of shelter… but beggars can't be choosers.

The purple dragon motioned to it with a bob of his head and without much complaint from the other the pair began their trot to the forest's edge. They drew close soon enough and were able to make out some traits of their shelter for the night, though it drew a soft sort of chuckle from Spyro. The forest was lightly populated with a few different species of oaks other flora, not so dense as to impede advancement, but sufficiently dense that the boughs of the trees would protect from some rain.

"Far from home…" Sighed the purple dragon as they entered under the first boughs of the trees, more to himself than anyone in particular, the forest seemed to afford the young dragon a moment of reflection about his youth and although similar, it was assuredly different- different enough to elicit a pang of homesickness in his heart.

"Home?" Came an enquiry from Cynder, just loud enough to snap the young dragon out of his reminiscing.

"Hmmm? Oh yeah… heh" He paused, if only to get a proper look at his surroundings "Would you believe that I was born in a place like this?" He cocked an eyebrow at his companion, cocksure that she wouldn't believe him "Like it, but not, the forest I was born in had mushrooms as big as trees and more frogweeds than I ever cared for" His words sounded like something from a dream, but they were said so simply that Cynder thought it impossible they betrayed his honesty.

"What on earth is a frogweed?" Asked Cynder, aghast that anything good could suffer to be an amalgamation of two terribly different organisms- spyro simply smirked.

"They're great terribly plants with tentacles that can swallow a dragon whole!" He exclaimed, barely stifling his snicker as the pair walked onwards "You'd like them"

"What? Why would I like that?" Queried Cynder, suitably shocked, Spyro let the small ruse dissipate as he quickly furnished her with some genuine facts.

"Because they're about 'yay' high and they like to eat dragonflies" He laughed as he lowered a wing to about half his height and shielded his laughter behind the other, not wanting to scoff openly at her belief. The black dragoness contented herself with a roll of her eyes and a well mannered smile as she caught up with her male counterpart and nudged him in the side lightly.

"Har har har Spyro, make fun of the dragoness, good to see you've regained your sense of humour" She admitted.

"I know, I know, but that was more for me than anything, I remember long ago, before any of this ever happened between you and me that I used to struggle with them, and my parents would warn me about them" He raised his head and shut his eyes for a brief moment, letting the most pleasant smile, one that can only be engendered by cherished memories, pass over his countenance "By the ancestors… the world seemed so small back then. My world was the forest and whatever my parents told me to do… and wherever Sparx took me when he ignored them… it's a good thing he had a big 'dragonfly' of a brother otherwise he'd have met his end inside a frogweed!" How he laughed, it was so warming.

Somewhere in his little speech Cynder could tell that it was more for him than for her benefit, there had been no time to reflect of reminisce on the past for so long a time, it was good to hear a story, even if she might never know the characters or the place, it was something new to her and familiar to him and it was special.

"I don't think you've ever told me a story about when you were young" She pointed out, curious of his youth as though she was reading it in the pages of a novel.

"That's because there's not much to tell" He stated plainly "I was raised by a family in what I thought was normalcy, I did, for the first years of my life, think I was just a 'fat dragonfly' as Sparx would put it and my life only got weird when I was drawn in to being a dragon" He shot her a sidewards glance as though to assure her that what he said was true "From what my parents told me and from what Ignitus…" he paused for a moment "From what Ignitus told me I was born on a fools hope, the longest of long shots, put on a mushroom cap as an egg and left to drift down the river…"

"You make it sound sad, though, you had a family, a brother and found friends and teachers in the guardians, what I wouldn't have done to have been in your place, as strange and impossible a scenario as it sounds to me" Cynder reassured him.

"I didn't mean to-" Objected Spyro, seeing the obvious faux pas that he had committed, but was cut off by his friend, placing the tip of her wing to his lips.

"And you didn't, for the first time in a long time I'm glad of the upbringing I had…." She trailed off, looking into the middle distance, sighing as she spoke, her tone somewhat somber and heavy "I regret the things that happened during my youth and I still feel the guilt for the actions I took, even if they weren't my own" There was a lingering pause and the air weighed heavy with the gravity of the moment as the world seemed to stop for a mere moment "But if those things hadn't happened I'd have never met you and we wouldn't be here right now so, no, don't worry… you didn't~" She intoned and gave way to another pregnant pause as the pair locked eyes for the smallest of moments.

Spyro immediately coughed and punctured the bubble of silence and looked around the small clearing they had since found themselves in, though his head was in a spin and his heart raced with unsurety.

"Yeah well, for what it's worth from me… i'm glad to have met you too, and I'm glad to have you here and have had you with me… I err…" He paused, clearly uncomfortable by the way he grazed a forepaw on the grass below "I couldn't have asked for anyone better to be with me at the end of it, the world, the journey!, all of it!" He said in rapid succession, tripping over his words, as he searched for the right ones becoming flustered before sighing "...You know what I mean" Cynder just laughed.

"Having trouble there Purple? But yes, 'for what it's worth' " She said, mimicking his tone "I know what you mean, I'm glad you said it" She said warmly as she lowered herself onto her hind quarters and let loose a small yawn "Anyway, you might have had the whole day to rest, but I've been looking out, Hope you don't mind if I catch some shut eye, you can man a fire." She said firmly, as though she'd pulled one over on the young dragon.

"Sounds fair, you get some rest, I'll be here when you wake up, sorry I don't feel up to hunting at the moment though" He admitted as he leaned forward and effortlessly ignited a small shrubbery at their feet, the light brought a great deal of comfort to him and unfortunately, he knew he wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

Night came eventually and the soft dark blues of the sky were replaced with a pitch black blanket perforated by formless grey clouds and the occasion twinkling star. Spyro did his best as the dragoness slept, meandering out of the small ring of trees every now and again to gather branches and twigs to toss onto the makeshift fire… but never out of the warm glow of the blaze.

The night went on and the young dragon found himself more and more transfixed on the fire, trying to focus more on the dancing orange and yellow flickers as the night went on rather than the all encompassing dark around him. He suffered, the dark seemed persistent, his only respite was the flame, and deprived of his ability to simply close his eyes for fear of being once again in that chilling black embrace he suffered the entire night, in a sickening pattern of staring into the flames and chancing his psyche on the outer edges of its glow gathering more fuel to sustain it until the sun crested over the trees and rescued him from the dark.

Eventually breaking over the boughs of the trees above, the sun did eventually begin its daily ritual of dispelling the dark back to the shadowy places of the world and establishing its luminous grip on those that remain. The bedraggled young dragon that remained static and awake staring into the embers of the fire looked haggard and the bags that hung under his eyes hung heavy and sapped the strength from his muscles, it was only the idle stirring of the dragoness to his side that snapped him out of his torpor.

As she opened her eyes and the light invaded them a grimace crossed her features, followed by a paw to wipe away the sleep, a morning ritual the pair were familiar with but under significantly more stressful circumstances than this, taking turns keeping watch and listening for rustling leaves and the snap of trod on branches- Spyro couldn't help but wonder if this was her first full sleep through the night since their adventures started. How he envied her.

"Morn-" Called the purple dragon, but his throat was hoarse from lack of water and a sleepless night, he cleared it with a rough cough and called again "Morning" At least he was met with a smile he thought as the dragoness rolled to her paws and stretched out in front of him and the warm cinders of the fire.

"Morning Spyro, I didn't expect you to let me sleep through the entire night" She stated, finding it rather odd.

"I couldn't sleep, so I just let you sleep, no sense it being wasted on me if I couldn't lay down" He laughed even if just to make the statement seem a little more genuine.

"Oh? How come? You're about due a rest"

"I rested up during the day, remember? It's hard to sleep after all that" He proposed, hoping to carry the motion, unable or unwilling to say anything more, now wasn't the time at least.

"Fair enough I suppose, it's not like it matters, I doubt that we'll be flying anywhere anytime soon, I just don't want you crashing out of the sky is all" She assured him and he thought to himself that even if this fear that pervaded his nights was here to stay, it was nice that he wasn't alone. "I will have to hunt us something though during the day, can't go around on an empty stomach, If i knew where we are, I'd know what we could hunt".

"Avalar, or not far from it" He chimed in glancing over to his partner "I recognise these fields anywhere and the valley shouldn't be far, no more than a days walk probably" He stated firmly, as it happened, gliding over the world seemed to translate rather easily to a ground level understanding of his surroundings to the young dragon.

"Alright, sheep then, maybe a cow if we're lucky, easy prey for an easy dinner… unlucky for them" She said with a particular flare that espoused some form of excitement.

"I'd have thought you'd have relished not having to fight for food, or at the very least fight anymore" Cynder simply shrugged and shot him a smile.

"Old habits die hard I suppose" And with that they took off with Spyro directing the pair deeper into the forest, Cynder with an all too lively spring in her step that made the trek through the trees seem effortless, and Spyro with a sluggish manner that made it seem like a slog through a swamp with the way his paws dragged along the undergrowth. It was slow going for sure, but not so much to raise alarm, afterall, how often did a pair of dragons choose to walk through a thicket rather than fly over it.

The hours dragged on much to Cynder's neglect and much to Spyro's Chagrin as each step felt heavier and more cumbersome than the last until finally, at the end of an arduous hike the trees began to part to a familiar sight, one that brought a smile to the purple dragon's face and put a spurt into his pace.

Before them was the Valley of Avalar in all its magnificent splendour, the trees peeled away to reveal a long winding river rushing through the centre of the valley, shimmering and glittering as its waves danced and played in the glorious golden sunlight that seemed to pierce through the heavens in long iridescent waterfalls as sun beams lit up the air and drenched the plants around. About in the meadows frolicked all manner of life: birds and butterflies, rabbits and sheep, walking around and grazing on the slightly altered landscape as though the cataclysm had never happened.

Along the banks of the river were rocky outcrops that stood static, resilient even in the face of the recent travesty that cracked the very mantle they sat upon and, much to Spyro's intrigue, a long, clear crystalline spine carved through one of the hillocks in the valley and sported many other similar offshoots from it like a root, as though it were anchoring itself into the ground- in a strange way, the way it contrasted the perfectly natural surroundings was beautiful, though it was dismissed as readily as he had noted it when he heard the voice of his companion calling from below, having made her way down one of the slight rises in the valley.

"Come on Spyro! I'm starving!" Called the black dragoness as she bounded off, taking wing with preternatural ease and sailing through the winds in pursuit of one of the many ovine in the are; her purple companion followed after her on the ground and, finding some strength in the prospect of food took to a gallop as he followed his companion up another rise but did not reach its peak before he heard the sharp cry of a kill being made.

Cynder had of course made short work of it, a sheep was a trifle compared to the tribulations that they had fought through and within the hour and with a little help for Spyro's fire breath the kill was steadily roasting above a crackling fire, its juices steadily dripping off of it and into the flames, each one eliciting a satisfying sizzle and salivation from both waiting dragons.

Spyro was the first to pipe up and speak as they both watched, entranced by the slowly sizzling meat "The cheetah village must not be far from here right?" Cynder returned with a short matter of fact statement.

"It is the Valley of Avalar, I'd wager they can see the smoke"

"I hope not… I don't want any Cheetah's showing up to share this, I could demolish the whole thing!" Jested the young dragon with a suitably boisterous laugh to accompany it and an even more timely grumble from his stomach.

"I don't doubt it, but you'll have to contend with me, we're both hungry" One the pair could wait no longer the meal passed in somewhat civil carnage, the pair didn't exactly tear into the carcass with tooth and claw, but with no tableware, no other witnesses and with their intense hunger dulling their sensibilities, the pair did take to wolfing down large gobbets of meat with every passing stroke of their jaws and sought out only the biggest cuts to satiate themselves until there was little more than spent charred bones and scraps of flesh and gristle serving as the sole reminder of the once four legged critter.

The time after the meal was passed in close silence as the pair sat contentedly on their hind paws and revelled in the afterglow of the feast as the cinders of the fire gave of a soft plume of dark smoke, piercing the clear air above. It wasn't long however though before it was once again time to move and Cynder hung upon the words that had been uttered prior by her companion.

"You mentioned the Cheetah Village? I had presumed we were heading back to Warfang, but do you not think that it might be sensible to stop off there first?" Spyro cocked and eyebrow and tilted his head to the side in a questioning fashion.

"Why? Hunter won't be there, he'll have returned to Warfang with the rest of our friends"

"Yes but they might give us supplies: food and water for the trip, if you can't hunt and we can't fly then it would make sense to pack for a journey, even if it is just a day or two" As eager as Spyro was to return to Warfang and see Hunter, the guardians and most of all, Sparx, he was sensible enough to see that Cynder's plan made sense, and it would make their journey easier, and so, he acceded to it with a nod and within minutes the pair had risen to their paws and began to make their way to the village.

The food had definitely helped and neither felt nearly as sluggish for having something in their bellies but Spyro still seemed worse for wear, still bearing scars from their fights and having been awake now for the better part of a day and a half now his fatigue was definitely showing. Whether it was through the half lidded eyes he sported, struggling to keep them open, or whether it was the periodic stumbling across the valley as he misjudged a step or caught his paw on something, his tiredness began to reap its toll on him and Cynder could definitely tell. It didn't matter whether the food had given him energy, his mind needed rest for him it was as though a thick fog clouded his judgement and even the simplest of actions took just that half second more to enact as his debilitation took hold.

What pushed him on was a sickening cordial of grit and fear, one emotion that made him determined to continue placing one paw in front of the other so he could reach his goal in opposition of his exhaustion and the other preventing him from yielding to it for the petrifying fear of the encompassing dark. Cynder had been able to put up with it until now but it all reached a head when, instead of tripping over one of his paws, the larger male stumbled and swung straight into her side, forcing her to support him else he took them both crashing to the floor

"Spyro!" She grunted as she pushed against him and set him back on all fours "What's going on with you?" She questioned, she was terse, not entirely unlike a mother who interrogated her child out of concern rather than ardor; she was met with a quick shake of his head that seemed to breathe some form of life into him before he settled a paw against his forehead, grimaced and retorted.

"I'm fine, just tired…" He said, his voice slow and dull, monotone to the highest degree.

"I'm not sure you-" Interjected Cynder

"Just...tired..." Cut Spyro, not with any sense of animosity or anger just with a fervence with which he wanted to push forwards the idea, putting to bed any ideas to the contrary with a single stroke "We should keep going, the village isn't far and I can rest there…" He seemed to return to life a little, his voice no longer such dull tone and he even went so far as to attempt to offset his companions worries with a smile, though the bags under his eyes betrayed it with their persistence.

Cynder could do little to oppose him, there was no point in stopping so close to their goal and it was true he could rest when he was there, unhappy with the predicament but unable to find a better alternative all she could do was drape a wing around him for support and walk at his side as they approached the village and slowly, steadily, made their way to the front gate.

The pair didn't even need to bother calling out to beg for the gate to open and as they made their last approach towards the village the tall wooden gates simply opened, no doubt scouts had seen them in the village and they were all but expected by this point, the direction of their travel doubtless having been relayed back to the village long before they ever set eyes on it.

Stumbling and tired the pair eventually made their way through the walls and were met with a considerably warmer response than their last time in the village, though the absence of magical collars alone saw to that. Eager to greet them was a ring of cheetahs who although they weren't in a raucous uproar did nevertheless cheer and clap the two battered dragons as they walked into the camp proper and the gates were closed securely behind them.

Out of the crowd strode a cheetah who looked every bit as battleworn as they did, his fur was a dark orange and across its surface in many places were ugly, ragged scars that always manifested in triplets, no doubt from claws, but it wasn't these that gave him his distinctive appearance, it was his face. Where once a young proud warrior with features girl in his village would have fawned over was, now resided a stoic countenance of a warrior who had tasted war, and desired to taste of it no longer; he was missing an eye and an ear and though the eyepatch he wore did much to civilise his appearance, there was no mistaking the ragged remains of his torn away ear- the siege of Warfang had not been kind to him.

"Dragons…" He said in a tone as foreboding as that with which he had first met them as he crossed his arms and sighed gruffly in a way that made both guests stiffen and tense uncomfortably and made the applauding crowd cease their merriment "Haha, welcome dragons, welcome!" He bellowed, his features turning to glee as a smile played across his lips and he too began to clap, inspiring another round of praise from his subjects, even louder and more mirthful than before. "Welcome to Cheetah Village, we are honoured to be the first to receive you both!"

Finally, it felt as though the start of the end of their journey had begun..


End file.
